A Reason To Live
by fanwriter1245
Summary: When the new Blue Dragon was given to him, Ao had no idea what to do with the baby. That is, until a woman from the village who seemingly fears nothing comes to his aid. Ao doesn't understand why someone would want to help the two pariahs of the village, but there's something about her that he just can't say no to.
1. Chapter 1

**Despite only being in half an episode, Ao is an absolutely fascinating character to me. The more I studied him to write this story, the more interesting he became. He was also very hard to write for, so I hope I kept him in character well.**

 **And of course, precious little Shin-Ah needed a woman's touch. I seriously wonder how he survived infancy with only Ao raising him.**

* * *

"Hello?" Lyra called as she pulled back the curtain to the entrance of the small stone hut. "Blue Dragon?"

She gasped and flinched when a long sword suddenly appeared dangerously close to her neck.

"What do you want?" a deep voice growled.

"I heard that a new Seiryuu was born, and that the villagers gave him to you. I also had a feeling that you didn't know the first thing about childcare, so I thought I would…help."

The sword came closer and she could feel it press onto her throat. The tendons on her neck came into clear view, and she took several shallow breaths.

"I could kill you in seconds."

The infamous Blue Dragon stepped into her line of sight, and she realized just how much he towered over her. His arms were so thick that she didn't doubt he could kill a man with just his bare hands.

Then she looked straight at him with cold eyes. "So do it. Kill me."

The man paused and looked at her carefully. She was looking him right in the eyes. Wasn't she afraid of what he could do to her?

"But won't that make you what they already fear you to be?"

The Blue Dragon lowered his sword which caused her to visibly relax. "Why would you want to help?"

"Because I'm not about to let an innocent child die just because our village is full of a bunch of idiots."

The man's eyebrows rose just a little bit in surprise at her bluntness.

"So where is he?"

He sheathed his sword and pointed towards his bed. "Over there. Watch yourself."

Lyra slowly walked over to the bed which aside from a stool and some hunting tools was the only thing in the hut. There lay the newborn baby destined to be the next Blue Dragon. He already had a head of short blue hair that resembled the man's.

She ever so gently lifted him up into her arms. She could feel the man's piercing stare on her back, ready to slice her to ribbons if she did anything harmful to the child.

"Let's get this off," Lyra said as she removed the small mask covering the baby's eyes.

"No, don't!" the man exclaimed.

Lyra looked at him pointedly. "Children shouldn't grow up with a mask on. Besides, whatever power it is you have, he won't have it at this age, and even if he does, it won't be strong enough to hurt me."

"'Whatever power I have'?"

"I know you have some kind of ability, but I don't think you turn people to stone. If that was the case, we would have statues everywhere."

This woman was unlike anyone he had ever met in his entire life. So cold and so blunt. Unlike everyone he had ever come in contact with, she didn't seem to fear him at all. In fact, it seemed more like she didn't care in the least bit if he was a killer, a mythical dragon, or a butterfly.

Lyra looked at the baby in her arms. "So beautiful," she said softly. "I've never seen eyes quite like this before."

"You think it's beautiful?"

"Yes." She looked over at him. "Has he eaten recently…or at all?"

"Uh, I tried to feed him some fruit earlier, but he wouldn't take it."

Lyra sighed. "Okay. Um…you might want to turn around."

The man's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because I'm going to feed him."

"With what?"

Lyra stared back at him.

The man's eyes widened just a little bit and he almost looked embarrassed. "Oh. Fine, but if you do anything to him, it will be the last thing you do."

"So you do care for him?"

"No. But I don't know what will happen to me if he dies."

The man turned to face the wall.

Lyra pulled down part of her dress to expose her breast. Then she guided the baby to the proper place so she could feed him.

He latched on rather quickly and immediately began to feed from her.

"There we go," the woman said with a small smile.

Once he had finished, she pulled her dress back up to cover herself.

"You can turn around now. Do you have a rag?"

The man pulled a garment out of his belt. "Here."

Lyra put the rag on her shoulder. Then she propped the baby up and softly hit him on the back until he released a quiet burp.

She carefully pulled him back into her arms where he quickly began to drift off to sleep. She held him for several more minutes before placing him back on the bed.

"I'll be back in a few hours to feed him again. If you need anything else, come and find me."

"Why are you doing this?" the man asked.

"I told you, I'm not going to let an innocent child die."

"But to everyone else, he isn't innocent. He's a curse."

"Well, they can believe what they want. But no matter what they say, he's an innocent child who happens to have been given a unique gift. That's all there is to it."

"What's your name anyway?"

The woman looked at him for a moment, as if questioning if she really wanted to tell him.

"Lyra," she finally said.

Then she went through the curtain and disappeared from view.

* * *

Things stayed that way for several days. Lyra came into the hut, fed the baby, and then left. Though each time, she seemed to stay for just a little bit longer.

Lyra still didn't have a name for the elder Blue Dragon before her. He never told her and no one in the village cared to learn it. She felt that since the only use she had was to feed the child in his care, it wasn't important for him to tell her even if he wanted to. And from what she knew of him, he didn't care about her enough to tell her.

"How long do you plan on doing this?" the man asked her as she rocked the baby to sleep.

"As long as he needs it."

"And how long will that be?"

Lyra looked up with a tiny smile. "Does my presence bother you that much?"

The man didn't answer. She had quickly learned he was one of few words.

"I don't know, maybe until he's six months old. It's just until he acclimates to eating the mashed fruit."

The baby in her arms finally drifted off. Rather than set him down onto the small bed the man had built for him, she continued to hold him in her arms. She liked having him there. He fit perfectly, almost as if her arms were made specifically for her to cradle him.

"Look, I know you don't exactly like having company which is why I don't stay for longer than necessary. I'm just trying to make sure he survives infancy. He'd have better chances if his mother wasn't such a coward."

The man was once again taken aback at her bluntness. "That could be considered disrespecting the dead."

"Well, it's the truth, she was a coward. Just because her child wasn't the perfect little boy everyone wants, she decided to off herself. A real mother loves her child no matter the imperfections. Real love is unconditional. His father's no better."

"The stigma is that being the Blue Dragon is a curse. If you were in her shoes, and truly believed that it was a curse, what would you have done?"

"If I believed that it was a curse like everyone else?" Lyra thought for a moment. "Raising a child isn't easy. Raising a child people believed to be cursed would be even harder. But that wouldn't mean it was entirely without its rewards. It would all just be a matter of raising the child differently and adjusting my views. Teaching him to use his abilities for good and helping him get them under control. According to the legend, there's other dragons out there, right? White, Yellow, and Green? Well, they must all have parents as well. Did they all kill themselves? Do they all believe the power is a curse? I highly doubt it. And if they can raise those dragons, why shouldn't I be able to raise mine?"

Lyra finally set the baby down on his bed to sleep. Her arms immediately felt cold and empty and she longed to continue holding him.

But she couldn't.

"I'll go now."

She started towards the curtain to return to her own hut.

"Wait," the man said.

Lyra stopped and turned to face him.

"In the future…you can…stay…for however long you want."

Lyra smiled a little. "If that's the case, I suppose it would be appropriate to learn your name."

The man looked at her in surprise though his facial expression didn't change. "My name?"

"Yes."

"I don't have one."

"Then what do you want me to call you?"

The man paused and mulled over something suitable. "Ao."

"Very well. I shall call you Ao."

Lyra turned and left the hut.

Ao watched as the curtain stilled. No one ever asked for his name before. Not a single person. And if he had ever been given one, he certainly didn't remember what it was.

It felt nice to have someone call him something other than 'Seiryuu' or 'Blue Dragon'.

Really nice.

* * *

Ao began observing Lyra the way he might observe an animal he was hunting. He watched her and learned her mannerisms, the way she spoke, and how she reacted to things. Conversation inside the small hut was extremely rare since she must've come to the conclusion that he preferred the silence.

She mainly only came to feed his new charge, but sometimes she would stay longer and hold him and rock him. She seemed to love the child more than life itself which was shown by her actions more than her expressions.

Other than himself, he had never known another human to be so distant and so cold. And yet she still showed an incredible amount of affection and selflessness for the little baby. It still confused him why she even offered to help in the first place and probably always would. But she had been right. He knew absolutely nothing about childcare, and her appearance truly had been a saving grace.

Not that he would ever admit that out loud.

Ao remained wary even after all this time. It could be her plan to take care of the baby for enough time to earn his trust and then kill him once he left them alone.

So he took things slow. He would leave for only a few minutes, then half an hour, then a full hour.

Each time, the baby was unharmed and even better off than when he had left.

Pretty soon, he had to admit that Lyra truly wanted nothing more than to take care of the child.

He wondered what the other villagers thought of her. Maybe they were terrified of her just because she spent so much time with him. Maybe they were angry she didn't seem to care for anyone except herself and put everyone in danger by spending time with him.

Whatever their feelings were, he was confident they didn't like her.

Though judging from the way she was, she didn't care in the slightest how they felt about her.

But didn't all humans care what others thought about them? It was human nature, wasn't it? He didn't count. He was a dragon. If he cared about what others thought, he would be miserable for the rest of his life.

It was a hard but necessary lesson he would have to instill into his charge when he got older.

Lyra walked around the hut gently rocking the baby in an attempt to get him to sleep. Her face was as expressionless as ever.

"What is it?" she asked suddenly. "You've been staring at me for the past five minutes."

Ao didn't answer at first from his seated position on the floor where he was fiddling with his hunting tools. Finally, he said, "What made you this way?"

"What are you talking about?"

"So cold. And distant."

Lyra let out a small scoff and looked away from him. She didn't say anything for a while, and Ao wondered if he had offended her.

"I used to be happy. I used to have a family. I was about to have a husband."

She stopped, and though patience wasn't Ao's strong suit, he waited for her to go on.

"But then I made the mistake of telling him that I couldn't have children."

The air inside the hut seemed to thicken at the surprising confession. If she had never had a child of her own and wasn't even able to become pregnant, how exactly had she been able to feed the baby?

Ao would sooner die before he asked that kind of question.

Lyra faced him with a hard smile. "You'd be surprised how fast people abandon you just because your body doesn't do the one thing they believe it's good for. You see, in my village, childbearing was held in the highest regard. If you couldn't do that…you were a disgrace."

Ao briefly wondered which of their lives was worse. Never knowing love at all, or having an immense amount of it and having it all ripped away.

"So my father took me and dropped me off here. And never looked back. I never got to marry the man who was supposed to become my husband, and I never saw my mother or father again. To them, I'm dead. All because of something I had no control over."

Silence filled the hut. What could he possibly say to all of that? It struck him that when he had nearly killed her the first time she had come to his hut, her eyes had had clear resignation in them. As if she welcomed death.

Though Ao had not known Lyra personally before she began to assist raising the child, he did know of her. She was a recluse who lived alone and hardly ever spoke to anyone. Her eyes were always hard and lifeless. With the villagers being the kind of people they were, no one ever made an attempt to reach out to her or understand her.

He had never related to someone so much before.

"I suppose I don't have to ask you how you became this way," her voice cut through his thoughts.

He looked up to see her smiling a little. He had noticed that as the days went by and she spent more and more time caring for the baby, her smiles got a little bit bigger.

"I guess not," he answered roughly.

"What's the Blue Dragon's ability anyway? I mean, the real one."

"Why?"

"Don't bite my head off. It's just a question."

Ao put his hand to his eyes. "In addition to being able to see extreme distances, we can paralyze anyone just by looking into their eyes. The power can even stop their hearts if we use enough of it. But it's a double-edged sword. When we use the power, it backfires and we become temporarily paralyzed ourselves."

"That's ridiculous. Whose idea was that?"

"The original Blue Dragon's, I guess."

"Well, no disrespect to him, but he should have left off that last part."

Ao looked up at the young woman. Not a single trace of fear. Even after hearing what their ability was, she wasn't afraid of them at all.

It was rather…refreshing.

* * *

"It doesn't seem fair, does it?"

Ao paused outside the curtain when he heard Lyra's voice. Was she talking to the baby? She had to be. No one else had the courage to step foot inside his hut. Did she always talk to the child?

"That some women like your mother get to have children and don't truly appreciate it. Then other women who want nothing more than to have a child can never get their wish."

It sounded like she was starting to cry.

"You're so beautiful. You're the most beautiful boy I have ever seen. And I wish so much that you were mine. But I will never be your mother. Not truly. No matter how much I want it. That's mainly why I haven't been able to give you a name. Because then…I'll feel like a mother to you. And I'm not. And you can't see me as your mother. Because if do, it will only hurt that much more. But it doesn't mean I don't love you. I love you so much. You've…given me a reason to live again."

She was definitely crying now.

Ao wasn't sure what to do. He knew that men were supposed to comfort women when they cried. But he had never done that. 'Comfort' from him would most likely just make the situation worse.

Lyra wouldn't want him to know that she had cried anyway. It would be better for everyone if he walked away and pretended he hadn't heard anything.

But he had heard. He had heard her moment of vulnerability. Any shred of doubt he had about her had completely disappeared.

When he walked in later once he was sure that Lyra had calmed down, he was surprised at the sight he found.

Lyra had fallen asleep on his bed, the child still held protectively in her arms.

The tiniest smile crossed Ao's lips. Just as he trusted her with the baby, she trusted him enough to sleep in his own bed.

Lyra looked so peaceful when she slept. The hard and cold aura that followed her had disappeared. Yet she still held the baby close to her.

She would definitely die for that boy, that much was certain.

Ao rarely felt anything for others, but for the first time that he could remember, he felt sympathy for the young woman. She must be exhausted from the multiple hours she spent caring for the child.

He took the child from her arms and placed him on his own bed. Then he gently covered her with a blanket. She stirred a little but didn't awake.

He might as well let her sleep. For all that she had done for him and the baby, it was the least he could do for her.

* * *

Lyra soon stopped feeding the child and helped him through the transition of eating solids.

Every now and then, she took him outside since she decided that it wouldn't be good for him to grow up never once stepping foot outdoors. He needed the sunshine and the fresh air to stay healthy.

People avoided them like the plague every time. It really didn't surprise her, but it frustrated her that the child was going to grow up with only her and Ao for company.

Ao definitely did not have the best parenting skills, and she was well aware that he was far too rough on the young boy. However, he never physically hurt him, and she knew that the man cared for him in his own way. He just had a lot of trouble showing it. He had a lifetime of anger built up inside him that he ended up taking out on the child. Lyra could sometimes hear his frustrated yelling all the way from her own hut.

They were both aware of how much they disagreed on raising the child, but neither interfered with the other when it came down to it.

One day, Ao was preparing to go hunting when he realized that Lyra had not stopped by yet. Usually, she came first thing in the morning, and lately, she had been staying until night fell.

He was surprised that he didn't really mind how much she had inserted herself into his life. It had become normal to see her so often and allow her to take care of the young boy who was now two years old.

"Lyra?" he called roughly from outside her hut. Then he pulled back the curtain hanging at the entrance and stepped inside. "You here?"

Lyra quickly turned around and faced the wall, pretending to be busy with something. "What are you doing here?"

"You never came by yesterday or today."

"You're saying you're concerned about me?"

"What's the problem?"

"It's nothing. I'm just…not feeling well."

"Look at me when I'm talking to you."

"I'm fine, Ao."

"Lyra, turn around."

Lyra took a deep breath. Then she slowly turned to face him.

Ao's expression didn't change, but he was infuriated.

A massive purpled bruise sat on her cheek along with one deep cut on her forehead and other scratches on various parts of her face.

"What happened to you?" Ao demanded.

"Ao, really, I'm okay."

"What. Happened?"

Lyra sighed. "I was out yesterday gathering some food and a couple of the villagers decided to…'teach me a lesson' for caring for the Blue Dragon and allegedly putting the rest of the village in danger."

Ao clenched his fists tightly.

"He can't see me like this," she added quietly.

"Why not?"

"I don't want him to blame himself. He's too young for that."

"It's something he'll have to learn eventually. It's part of who we are. Might as well do it now."

"Just…tell him I'm sick for right now."

Ao turned to leave the hut.

"Ao!" Lyra called. He stopped but didn't turn to look at her. "Don't go looking for them. Please. It will just make things worse."

Without another word, Ao left.

Lyra sighed again and went back to tending to her injuries.

* * *

While Lyra let the child run around in a large field away from the village and their fearful and hateful stares, Ao came up next to her.

"I heard two people from the village recently fear the Blue Dragon more than ever. You wouldn't have something to do with that, would you?"

Ao looked at the child as he blissfully played in front of them, still unaware of just how hated he was by everyone else. "I technically listened to you. I didn't look for them. I just overheard them talking about how they had managed to hurt the 'Blue Dragon Lady'. So you could say they found me."

Lyra smiled a little. She had had a feeling that Ao would do something to the people who hurt her. He wouldn't say it, but he had something of a soft spot for her. She wouldn't be surprised if he intentionally put himself in just the right spot so he could hear the two culprits without really 'looking' for them.

"I didn't really do anything," Ao continued. "Just warned them to not do anything to upset me."

"…Thank you."

He hadn't been expecting to hear that. But then, hardly anything Lyra did fulfilled his expectations. It was interesting to see how much she had warmed up since she had started taking care of the child. Her eyes were not so cold and distant anymore, and she had started wearing a beautiful smile much more often.

The child truly had given her a reason to live.

* * *

"Lyra!"

Lyra turned to the entrance of her hut. She smiled and knelt down as she held out her arms.

The young four-year-old boy quickly ran into them with a smile.

"Hello, beautiful boy!" she greeted. "My, you're getting so big!" She lifted up his mask and smiled. "Eyes as beautiful as ever."

The child took off the mask and set it down onto a stool in the hut.

Ever since Lyra had started taking care of the boy, she always took off his mask whenever she was around him. She didn't care what Ao or anyone else said. He had control of his power and he wouldn't use it on her. She refused to let him wear that thing for his entire childhood. It wouldn't be right for him to grow up in darkness.

He always seemed relieved that he got to have some fresh air hit his face whenever he was with her.

"Lyra? Why aren't you afraid of me and Ao like everyone else?"

Lyra wanted to tell him that most people, decent humans anyway, wouldn't be like the rest of the village and fear him once they understood him. She wanted to say that their village was full of ignorant people who only cared about themselves and their own worries and fears.

"I have a special power of my own," she said to him. "I'm able to see inside people."

The child clutched his chest in surprise. "You can see inside me?!"

Lyra laughed warmly. "Not that way. I mean that I can see you as a person. People here can only see you for your power. What I see is a very special boy with beautiful eyes and a heart for life. I can see how much you care about everything around you, even the people who fear you. I can see your smile and everything else that makes you you."

"Are you the only one with this power?"

"No, a lot of people have it. And I pray that someday, you'll be able to meet those people."

"Would they be my friends?"

Her heart clenched a little. On multiple occasions, the young boy had expressed an immense desire to have just one friend. "Yes."

"What if I don't ever meet them?"

Lyra hoped that would never be the case. "Then you just keep being you."

* * *

Ao continued to teach the child how to control the power of his eyes and then began training him in swordsmanship and hunting. Lyra despised the fact that someone so young had to be subjected to something so brutal, but she could also admit that it was in fact a necessity. Ao wouldn't be around forever, and as much as Lyra cared for the boy, she couldn't teach him those things like the Blue Dragon could.

She had noticed lately that Ao seemed to be getting weaker as the boy grew stronger. She sometimes would go to his hut late at night and give him some food or medicine she had made during the day while the two of them had been out training. He reluctantly accepted it, and she knew that he detested someone seeing him in a weak state.

But that didn't stop her from caring for him.

"Lyra! Lyra!"

The child frantically ran into her hut very, very early in the morning. Fortunately, she was already awake and preparing breakfast.

She couldn't see his eyes as he had his mask on, but from the tone of his voice, they had to be wide with panic.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's Ao."

Lyra's eyes widened and she bolted out of the hut with him. She followed the child to the field not far from the village and say Ao lying on the ground.

"Ao!" she cried. She ran up to him and knelt down next to him. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here."

"Lyra?"

"Yes."

"I…I can't see you."

Lyra looked up at the child in panicked confusion until she realized the truth. Ao's power was gone because it belonged to the young boy now. This was made clear by the fact that the red marks beneath his eyes had disappeared.

He was dying.

"You've done a good job," she said softly. "You've raised the boy well."

"I…I couldn't have done it…without you."

Tears filled Lyra's eyes. Several fell onto Ao's arm.

"Are…are those tears? I…never thought…a woman…would ever cry over me."

Lyra put her hand to the side of Ao's face. Then she leaned over him and gently let her lips touch his own.

She softly touched his hand. "Rest now."

Ao's eyes closed and all his movement stilled.

Lyra put her hand to her mouth as she began to sob.

The boy came beside her with tears pouring down his own face. She put her arm around him and pulled him close to her as if the closer she held him, the more he would be protected from any further pain.

* * *

For the next few days, Lyra spent almost all of her time with the young boy. While she didn't cry in front of him because she wanted to be strong for him, he had sobbed in her embrace several times crying out for Ao.

She wondered if Ao had known just how much the child really loved him despite how harsh he always was to him.

What sickened her the most was how happy all the villagers seemed to be about his death. She knew they wouldn't lay a hand on the young boy because they were more afraid of killing the Blue Dragon than they were of the Blue Dragon himself, but if they even so much as touched him, she wouldn't hesitate to kill them or at least severely injure them.

Lyra was surprised with herself, but she found that she was much more depressed by Ao's death than she ever thought she would be. She wasn't sure she had realized how much she had cared for him until he was lying on the ground in front of her. He couldn't even see her one last time…

When the young boy was not with her, she lay in her bed despondent and silent.

And then she cried. She sobbed and sobbed into the night until she fell asleep.

On a rainy day that did not improve her mood, Lyra was inside her hut preparing for the child to come spend time with her.

However, her plans quickly changed when she saw him running down the path that led out of the village.

Something was wrong.

Without another thought, she pulled back the curtain to her hut and took off after him. The rain quickly drenched her entire body and soaked through her clothes down to her very bones.

But the only thing on her mind was protecting the boy she had grown to love so much.

Once she caught up with him, her pace slowed and she looked ahead of her in horror.

A large group of what appeared to be soldiers marched towards the village. It wouldn't be the first time that a large group of men came to their village with ill intentions, but before, they had always had Ao to protect them, not that the villagers ever cared.

With him gone, there was no left to fend them off. The boy was only four years old and could maybe fight off one or two, but definitely not all of them.

So why wasn't he running away? Why was he going towards them?

One of the soldiers drew his sword.

Lyra ran forward faster than she had ever run in her life and threw herself in front of the young boy.

"No, don't!" she cried. "Please! I assure you, this village has nothing of value that you want!"

The soldier in front with his sword drawn smirked. "We heard there was a guy here with some kind of special power. We want to see it."

"There's no one like that here."

"Back off, lady. I won't hesitate to use this."

"There's no need to hurt anyone. We have nothing here that will be of any use to you."

The man's smirk widened as he looked at the man next to him. "What was the name of that guy?"

The other man smirked back. "They called him the Blue Dragon or something."

The first man looked at the young boy behind her. "That kid's got blue hair. He could be the Blue Dragon. Even if he isn't…that color would still be sure to get us a fine price."

Lyra's eyes darkened. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him," she growled.

The man ignored her and began to reach for the boy.

"I said don't!"

Without warning, Lyra pushed him back and then punched the soldier square in the jaw.

All Lyra felt after that was extreme pain and burning across her chest and stomach where the soldier had slashed his sword across her skin.

"Lyra!" the boy screamed in terror.

Lyra fell forward onto the dirt path which made the injury hurt even worse. Black spots danced across her vision from the sheer pain of it all.

Suddenly, cries of pain and terror rang out around her and the soldiers began dropping like flies beside her.

She looked towards the boy and saw rage and bloodlust coursing through those beautiful eyes of his. His mask lay forgotten in the dirt.

"No," she mustered out. "Don't…use your power…"

The young boy either ignored her or was so lost in his ability that he didn't hear her. She wasn't sure which it was.

"Please…"

All the soldiers dropped to the ground lifeless.

And then just like Ao said, lightning flashed with a loud boom of thunder, and the boy fell to the ground next to Lyra completely paralyzed. His eyes stared back at her with fear and regret.

She mustered up what little remaining strength she had left and inched towards him. She screamed in pain as the large injury rubbed across the dirt and left a bloody smear behind on the ground. Tears began sliding down her cheeks to mix with the falling rain.

She put her hand to the boy's head and lightly rubbed his hair.

"It's okay," she said softly.

"L…Lyra…"

"I…I love you so much, beautiful boy. I…always cursed the day that the doctor told me I would never have a child. But now I realize it was the best thing that could ever happen to me. Because it brought me to you. You…are everything to me. Be…be strong."

"I'm…sorry."

"You have…nothing to be sorry for. I love you."

Lyra's eyes closed as she succumbed to her wounds.

The young boy felt tears running down his face.

The second he got even a shred of feeling back in his limbs, he moved closer to the only woman who had ever loved him and wrapped her arm around him.

She was already deathly cold.

He stayed in her embrace for as long as he could, savoring the feeling of someone holding him.

He would never know this feeling again for another 14 years.


	2. Chapter 2

**This little "epilogue" takes place during the "Forest Lushing Blue" arc (Chapters 106-108 of the manga).**

* * *

Shin-Ah wasn't sure what exactly had happened. First he was saving his pet squirrel, Ao, from a dragon statue after she had fallen in. To do that, he sliced off the head. Ao was fine as she happily climbed back up onto his shoulder. He turned to leave.

Then…nothing.

He didn't understand what was going on.

Where was he right now?

There was a person in front of him. It looked like a woman. He stepped closer to her.

That face. It couldn't be.

"L…Lyra?" he whispered.

The woman smiled beautifully at him. He hadn't seen that smile in 14 years.

Overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of the only woman who had ever cared for him as a child, he eagerly ran into her awaiting arms.

She kindly laughed as she tightly hugged him back.

When he pulled away, he felt as if he wanted to cry, but no tears would come to his eyes. It was as if it was impossible to cry in this place, wherever it was.

Lyra put her hand to his cheek and he realized he didn't have his mask on. "You're all grown up, aren't you?"

"I…I don't understand," Shin-Ah said softly. "Am I dead?"

"No, beautiful boy. Your journey is not yet at its end."

Shin-Ah hugged her again and refused to let go. He hadn't realized how much he missed her until she was in his sights again.

"I'm so sorry I had to leave you," she said softly to him. "I never wanted to leave you alone."

Shin-Ah didn't answer her as he had no words to say to her. After she died, he had thought of so many things he had wanted to say to her, but now that he had the opportunity, he couldn't remember any of it.

"How is this possible?" he finally asked. "I don't remember what happened."

"You came across the resting place of several previous Blue Dragons. One of them has taken over your body. Part of you is aware of what's going on. But the other part of you, this part, is here."

"I…I miss you, Lyra."

"I know. But I've been watching over you all these years. You have several people who care about you now. People with the special power I had."

"Yeah. They're my friends."

"You've become very close with that girl, haven't you?"

"Yona."

"Yes. I can tell that you share a very special bond with her."

"She…gave me my name. I'm Shin-Ah."

Lyra smiled at him. "It's beautiful. And I think it is much more fitting that she named you instead of me."

"She's kind to me. She reminds me a little of you."

Lyra once again put her hand to his face. Shin-Ah lightly pressed her hand on top of hers.

"I'm so proud of you," she told him. "You're every bit the man I always wanted you to be."

"Lyra, please…can't I stay with you?"

She gave him a sad smile. "No. It's time for you to go back. You still have a job to do. That girl needs you. They all need you."

"But I need _you_."

"And I will continue to watch over you. I promise. We'll meet again someday."

The woman gave him another tight hug and then started to walk away.

Shin-Ah looked ahead and saw another figure. This one was a man. He looked familiar.

His heart clenched in his chest when the man came into clearer view and met eyes with him. He had nearly forgotten that face entirely.

But he looked different. Not so angry.

"Look after yourself, kid," he said.

Lyra tenderly took the man's outstretched hand. Then she turned back to Shin-Ah with a kind smile. "Good-bye…my beautiful boy."

Shin-Ah's surroundings blurred before everything turned black.

When he opened his eyes, he was on his knees staring at some very familiar red hair.

"Yona," he said softly.

The girl looked up at him. "Shin-Ah?"

"I'm back."

That night, once the group had left the burial grounds and set up a campfire, Shin-Ah rested on his back and gazed up at the star-filled sky.

Ao nuzzled his cheek and her soft fur tickled his skin.

"Shin-Ah?" Yona said as she came to sit next to him. "Are you okay?"

"I…remembered."

"Remembered what?"

"I remembered…my guardians."

"What were they like?"

Shin-Ah looked over at her and saw she wore that ever present and curious smile on her face.

"You don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable. But I would really like to know if that's all right. Did they take care of you when you were a child?"

Shin-Ah nodded.

"I'm guessing one of them was the Blue Dragon before you, right?"

He nodded again.

"Who was the other one? His wife?"

He shook his head. "She was…a friend."

"What was her name?"

"Lyra."


End file.
